Killam Properties using non-traditional promotional campaigns

Killam Properties listed four apartments on eBay for apartment hunters to bid on the rental price, starting bids were five dollars.

By Emily Marshall

This week, Killam Properties took their marketing strategies to a new level and decided to put up four of their properties on eBay, a popular online shopping website.

Apartment hunters in Halifax could place a starting bid of $5 for each of the properties.

Anyone interested in bidding would go to ebay.com and search for Killam Properties. Their four apartments would appear with information on each apartment, such as the number of bedrooms, size and market rent. Then all one has to do is enter a bid price. The winning bidder would pay that amount of rent for three months of a 12-month lease.

This new way of bidding is also beneficial for those who are already leasing apartments from the Killam Properties, “We have tweaked our traditional Choose Your Neighbour program and allowed our tenants to participate and share with promotion with their friends through social media and be able to win prizes and gifts” says Lindsay Kaiser, the coordinator for marketing and executive relations at Killam Properties. These gifts can include anything from a free months rent to a TV or an iPad.

Even those who don’t win the apartment they placed a bid on will not walk away empty handed.

“We will be incenting all bidders, even those not successful. If you bid, you’ll get a special offer for one of our apartments regardless,” explains Kaiser.

Killam Properties, based in Halifax, is one of Canada’s largest residential landlords owning and operating multi-family apartments and manufactured home communities.

“We are always looking for new and innovative ways of marketing our products, which for Killam, just so happens to be apartments, places to live,” explains Kaiser.

“Social media and online shopping are very popular channels for general communication and consumer purchasing so we’ve simply tried to incorporate both elements into this latest campaign,” says Kaiser.

Killam Properties hopes that this new, modern way of showing their properties will make more people aware of their corporation and promote them as a landlord.

Sarah Baker, a young apartment hunter herself, thinks that this new promotional idea is genius.

“It is definitely clever marketing,” says Baker, “everything is moving to online these days, and putting apartments on eBay is definitely a step in the right direction.”

Baker sees no cons in this marketing idea.

“It seems that they have covered all angles. They’re not forgetting about those who are already leasing apartments from them and they’re being smart by using these people to help promote their apartments.”